For Gov. Rick Snyder and Mayor Mike Duggan, chasing 5,000 jobs in Asia was a noble pursuit. How they pursued it stinks.

They did so in secrecy, flying to Asia sometime after the Mackinac Policy Conference with no public announcement. Even after word leaked that metro Detroit was in the running for a $4.2 billion investment by Taiwan-based Foxconn Technology Group, Snyder and Duggan aides refused for days to confirm their whereabouts.

Snyder spokeswoman Anna Heaton told Crain's, "The governor's schedule is not a matter of public record due, in part, to security concerns."

That is absurd. If the president of the United States can travel safely on publicly announced foreign trips, so can the governor of Michigan.

Snyder's spokeswoman continued: "Nevertheless, we are very transparent with the media regarding the governor's activities prior to occurring (i.e., media advisories for planning purposes) and with the public as they occur or very soon afterward."

That is spin. Snyder's office provides in advance a fraction of his schedule to reporters, and only to those who commit not to share it with the public until the events are done.

A broader point: Michigan's pathetically weak freedom of information law exempts the governor, the lieutenant governor and the state Legislature. This allows them to keep private almost every piece of public business. In the case of Foxconn, not only can Snyder leave the country without notice, but the public can't learn of the trip later by obtaining his travel documents.

For some period of time last week, Michiganders didn't even know who was running their state. Section 26 of the state Constitution puts the lieutenant governor first in line of succession. It states: "If the governor or the person in line of succession to serve as governor is absent from the state, or suffering under an inability, the powers and duties of the office of the governor shall devolve in order of precedence until the absence or inability giving rise to the devolution of powers ceases."

When Brian Calley is governor, we should know about it.

As for Duggan, he is mayor of Detroit no matter where his job takes him, but he should appreciate the public's right to know. You might recall the Crain's editorial in November that reprimanded Duggan for a lack of transparency. He had failed to inform the public or the City Council about the federal government's suspension of a land bank program.

His chief of staff, Alexis Wiley, said it's the mayor's practice not to disclose job-recruiting conversations until an agreement is concluded. "Any other practice would be completely unprofessional," she told me. But I'm not asking Duggan to disclose sensitive conversations, just tell Detroiters when he travels overseas.

Could a nondisclosure agreement be keeping Snyder and Duggan quiet about any negotiations with Foxconn? Certainly, even likely. But an NDA does not prevent them from confirming their trips abroad and, in the case of Snyder, disclosing his succession of power.

Here's the kicker: It's not even clear whether this is an opportunity worth chasing. As my colleague Kirk Pinho reported, Foxconn has a history of promising big jobs that never come.

Some voters might wonder whether this trip is a ruse, a taxpayer-funded ploy to build support for Snyder's business tax incentive plan. Despite the state's rocky history with such tax breaks, Snyder says this one is needed to lure and keep big businesses in Michigan.

Snyder says, trust me, to a public that has lost trust in the political system and its leaders, a public that needs and wants more transparency in government.